The present invention pertains to a dye-based inkjet ink set and, more particularly, to a dye-based inkjet ink set suitable for printing on polyamide fabric.
Digital printing methods such as inkjet printing are becoming increasingly important for the printing of textiles and offer a number of potential benefits over conventional printing methods such as screen printing. Digital printing eliminates the set up expense associated with screen preparation and can potentially enable cost-effective short run production. Inkjet printing furthermore allows visual effects, like infinite pattern repeat sizes, that cannot be practically achieved with a screen-printing process.
One area of textile printing ideally suited to digital printing is the flag and banner market where short runs are common. However, printing of flags and banners presents unique challenges. For example, ink is printed on one side, but must penetrate the fabric so that the image is equally visible on the back (unprinted) side as on the front (printed) side. In addition, while the ink must travel through the fabric, it must not travel laterally causing blurring and bleeding. This seemingly contradictory set of conditions is not easily achieved. Furthermore, the printed products will typically be displayed in sunny areas and the colorants in the inks are preferably resistant to light fade.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,847,740 discloses an inkjet printing process on nylon cloth. US20050193499 discloses flag and banner printing methods and pretreatment solutions therefor. The disclosures of these documents are incorporated by reference herein for all purposes as if fully set forth.
Inkjet ink sets typically comprise the subtractive-primary colors cyan, yellow and magenta. Although lightfast yellow and magenta dyes suitable for printing on flag and banner stock are available, cyan dyes currently available have a lightfastness that is less than desirable. Consequently, portions of the color gamut where cyan is the predominate colorant have substantially lower lightfastness than other parts of the gamut where more lightfast colorants are used. In addition, portions of the gamut where cyan is even a minor component will show significant hue shifting as the system ages. Preferably, all parts of the color gamut would have a similar, high level of lightfastness.
It is an object of this invention to provide an inkjet ink set with wide gamut, wherein all inks have desirable light-fastness, such that the set is advantageous for printing on polyamide fabric.